Politics and International Relations Seminar Series

Neoliberal transition in Britain and Chile: coercion, consent and the discourse of national renewal

Seminars

Based in the School of Social Sciences, the Department of Politics and International Relations holds a regular weekly seminar series over the academic year, inviting excellent internal and external speakers to present their research findings.

Event details

Based in the School of Social Sciences, the Department of Politics and International Relations holds a regular weekly seminar series over the academic year, inviting excellent internal and external speakers to present their research findings.

This is an integral part of our research culture in the department, which stimulates thought and debate, and informs about current developments in the various subfields of Politics and International Relations.

Staff and students from the Department of Politics and International Relations and the wider University are welcome to attend.

This week's seminar is from NTU's Dr Heather Watkins. Heather will be presenting on 'Neoliberal transition in Britain and Chile: coercion, consent and the discourse of 'national renewal.'

Abstract

The term neoliberalism became associated with processes of economic and social restructuring in various parts of the world during the latter years of the twentieth century. While the importance of these processes is undisputed, the extent to which neoliberalism constitutes a coherent and consistent ideology, or merely a contingent and contextual set of broadly related policies, remains a source of contention. This paper explores this question through a comparative analysis of the political discourse of neoliberal transition in Britain and Chile.

Drawing on the model of historical comparison developed by Antonio Gramsci, we will argue that these two countries represent paradigm cases of the constitutional and authoritarian routes to neoliberalism. However, an analysis of the key “manifesto” speeches of Margaret Thatcher and Augusto Pinochet, and in particular the deployment of a discourse of “national renewal”, suggests that both cases rest on a particular and comparable articulation of coercion and consent.

We argue therefore that while each paradigm articulates these themes in distinct ways, it is the relationship between the two that is essential to the political ideology of neoliberalism, whether as the coercive construction of consensus in Chile, or the consensual construction of coercion in Britain.

Booking information

Staff and students from the Department of Politics and International Relations and the wider University are welcome to attend.

Should you be external to the University and wish to listen to one of our speakers, please inform the Research Seminar Coordinator Dr Kevin Love via email prior to the event you wish to attend.